200+ DPI monitor
Feature request (by a stressed out designer):
Doubling the size of images will ensure forward compatibility as display resolutions go up over the next few years.
Archive: 200+ DPI monitor
200+ DPI monitor
Feature request (by a stressed out designer):
Doubling the size of images will ensure forward compatibility as display resolutions go up over the next few years.
Well, possibly. On the assumption that the installer adapts to higher resolutions by displaying larger in future. I don't know that it will necessarily of course, on Vista. Presumptuous. Very.:o
Compliments on the 2.25 release. Getting better all the time. Excellent. (Less stressed out.)
Images in the MUI wizard are already stretched if too small. What exactly is it that you're requesting?
I started thinking about the new scalable Vista style icons. Current XP icons, say in the titlebar, 16x16 pixels typically, would be so small as to be almost invisible when the screen resolution is twice that or three times what it is today. It's my understanding that Vista icons are capable of adjusting to the screen resolution. If all interfaces increase in size some day, graphics, and not just icons, need to appear larger. That has implications for images you design today. The request is: if images are made larger and resized to fit (already stretching happens if the bitmap is smaller, or bigger, as you point out), future installer versions would be able to use the same images with a high enough resolution. Admittedly, it's a crackpot idea. You might as well wait until 250/320 DPI displays are in use, then begin to consider if you want to build a new installer with a larger interface with enhanced graphics. Too much trouble for now. Wishful thinking. I shouldn't have brought it up in a NSIS context. The MUI appearance is probably good for another couple of years, maybe longer than that.:up:
I'm sorry, I still don't understand the request. It already uses the same image, only larger. Are you asking for a different set of larger icons for higher DPI?
It's more of a pipedream ("request") I think: a whole scalable interface, the works, icons, buttons, everything, including graphics. I don't understand really perhaps, why Vista icons can resize depending on the user's screen res. Having that feature in icons, there is also a case for creating applications that resize. As an example, if you have a 3096x2304 display setting (Bill Gate's utopia apparently), the titlebar and the titlebar icon show up with more pixels. (Is that possible?) You must forgive, I'm a complete idiot when it comes to programming. I don't know the next thing about software development. My only wish is for a smooth transition from the average display resolution today to those higher DPI settings. I don't feel like scrapping my MUI installer when it becomes too small ... in 2011?
No need to apologize, I'm just trying to figure out what's needed here. If I am going to implement it some day, I need to know.
Currently, as images are stretched and icons already containing larger versions of themselves which Windows would probably automatically use, the transition should be relatively smooth. To get a perfect transition, you'd probably want to check the DPI and use a set of larger images so they won't appear stretched.
To identify selected DPI, GetDeviceCaps can be used. MUI_WELCOMEFINISHPAGE_INIT will be where this will take affect and extract a different wizard image. MUI_HEADERIMAGE_INIT will also have to change for the header image. Probably a define named something like MUI_HEADERIMAGE_BITMAP_HIGH_DPI will need to be created which will contain the path to the higher DPI image. If empty, it should use the default MUI image for higher DPI.
I like the theory. Higher DPIs. And yours even better. I wasn't expecting that. Code already. My old CRT 21" monitor is falling apart on me literally. The casing is cracked because the tube is too heavy. I predict it won't make the smooth transition to 200+ DPI.
Correction: MUI already does re-scale. (Am I blind?) My welcome/finish page image has text that looks pretty ugly when the image is stretched (higher DPI). The code to check DPI and insert larger bitmaps will help very much. Thank you.
Maybe introducing MUI syntax for larger images and a method of checking the DPI is going too fast. Since on XP, not Vista, I don't have much experience with DPI settings: 96 and 120 and custom. I can emulate the effect of stretching in Photoshop. Distortion occurs unless the DPI is exactly 96 or 192 or 288. Larger images aren't the cure. Small fonts tend to look ugly when an image is stretched. For the most part, normal resolution welcome/finish page and the header bitmaps are adequate.
Kichik, I will keep my mouth shut from now on. I missed what was staring me in the face, that the installer does re-scale.
It does rescale, but having larger images that aren't stretched is something worth having. Not urgent since higher DPI isn't that common yet, but still nice to have. Add a feature request for it, so it won't get forgotten.
larger images that aren't stretched is something worth havingI agree, but I was referring to larger images that are stretched "correctly". Such images would appear less blurry, I thought, in Windows Vista with improved high DPI device support over XP. In fact, I knew larger images were resized to fit at higher DPI settings. I wasn't requesting the feature. I didn't know increasing DPI expanded the image area. Windows XP at 200% DPI expands the Modern UI welcome/finish page area to 993x603 pixels. The 96 DPI default size is 497x314 pixels. You seem to be suggesting a feature where the image area expands but bitmaps are not stretched? I'm not sure why.
We're talking about the same thing. By larger images that don't stretch, I mean higher resolution images.
IMO, we are talking about the same thing. Assuming the welcome/finish page is a full-page bitmap (left=0; top=0; right=331; bottom=193), a 993x603 pixel image, for instance, at 200% DPI would not be stretched; at 96 DPI, the image would be stretched, scaled-down.
As to Vista DPI scaling, the problem is I don't have Vista. I might have a feature request (for when I upgrade): 994x628 pixels at 192 (200%) DPI.